I Found a Penny Today, So Here’s a Thought
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We received a message that said " Grendel was what I couldn't recall." We were reminded of the wisdom to know one's own monster.
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The Physics of Literary Allusion
When Ridley Scott chose to name his filmed adaptation of Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? after an unrelated novel, Alan E. Nourse's The Bladerunner, an "entanglement" was created. Imagine a string connecting the two Blade Runners, transcending the Meaning-Context Perimeters of each work. (In our diagram, the perimeters deliberately resemble Morse code, because beyond a literary work's context, meanings tend toward the cryptic and secret.) That entangling string is vibrated or "enlivened" by the Meaning-Context Perimeters, very much like the string of a violin activated by a bow. We see that the resulting resonance is interpenetrating — each work becomes colored by the other. The significance is quasi-magical, as readers unfamiliar with Nourse's coinage of Bladerunner are yet taken by the word's glamour in Scott's usage (in its original sense, glamour meant enchantment/magic and was an alteration of the word grammar). And vice versa, since the entangling string connects beyond time. Each title is powerful in its respective year (1974 for Nourse, 1982 for Scott) because of that entangling string; in other words, the punch of Nourse's title is in anticipation of Scott's echo of it eight years later, and, paradoxically, Scott banked on the glamour "previously" inherent in Nourse's term. (We of course recall that in terms of quantum physics, time does not exist in the way that we observe and metabolize it.)
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You've heard the oath "Jesus hot sauce Christmas cake" in the PS4 game Until Dawn. But we can now exclusively reveal the recipe.
The Jesus Hot Sauce Christmas Cake recipe
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups organic granulated demerara or turbinado sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. allspice
1 tsp. ground cloves
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Optional: 1 cup finely chopped spiced nuts
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Oil and flour two 9-inch baking pans. Combine all ingredients into a large bowl (except optional nuts), and mix well on low. Then mix on high until sugar is dissolved. Fold in optional spiced nuts, and pour into pans. Bake 40 to 50 minutes. When the cakes have cooled, frost them with your favorite sour cream icing.
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We have painstakingly curated 52 lost meanings of wedlock, one to inspire each week of an engagement. Why lost meanings? The definition of "marriage" has become hotly debated of late, to the point that the word has become "increasingly unmentionable" (Catholic Herald) or even "has no meaning at all" (Family Policy Institute). It's been said that only through loss can there be gain, that only through loss can we truly grow and understand what is at stake, that only through loss can that which is beautiful be found. As the poet Joseph August has noted, "Only through loss can we glimpse the deepest meanings, / hints and flashes whispered from below / elucted as from underwater, deep." The collected lost meanings of wedlock might surprise even those who would otherwise be considered well-informed.
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Our favorite depiction of Stygian ferryman Charon is in the song "Sirens, No Harbour" by Sweden's Henric de la Cour. The opening lines reveal that the speaker has entered the netherworld, and though it is not immediately clear, the speaker does not yet realize that he is dead:
I came through
the darkness;
I came through
the mist.
I heard my name
on the wind.
And here we're introduced to Charon, who is the epitome of friendliness:
Please come aboard
my humble vessel.
I will take you across
this troubled sea.
But it's Charon's safety spiel that we most appreciate, like an airline's "In the event of a water landing" instructions. He is gently, indirectly suggesting that something will happen to his passenger, to help his passenger come to terms with having expired:
If something should happen,
if the sea should claim you,
please give my regards
to the fish of the deep.
If you get lonesome
in the abyss,
close your eyes;
part your lips.
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This app is based upon a telepathy test that the Official Prisoner Appreciation Society commissioned us to design back in 2008. In the episode of The Prisoner entitled "The Schizoid Man," actor Patrick McGoohan uses a special deck of symbol cards to test Extra Sensory Perception. That deck is similar but not identical to the Zener cards made famous by parapsychologist J. B. Rhine in the 1930s. We created an exact replica of the prop deck to the delight of the Society, but as fate had it the cards never went into print.
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Spin the dial at every crossroad and let Fate lead your journey. This four-tiered oracle suggests which direction to turn and alerts to special circumstances along the way. Try it when wandering a botanical garden for the first time, or if you find yourself lost, or if you wish to lose yourself.
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It's a tool for combating stress, anxiety, and panic attacks. We "circled the square" by transforming the technique of four-square breathing into a wheel of life.
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The three little words "follow your bliss," by the great mythologist Joseph Campbell, teach a profound lesson in tapping the energy that makes you tick. But how to begin? Start using the Follow Your Bliss Compass to put yourself on the right track. You'll soon start becoming mindful of the blissful energy within you and will begin using it to make empowering changes in your life. Following your bliss is always a real adventure—a journey into the uncharted center of yourself.
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We've been working on this for six years, and it's finally perfected: a Cloud Busting app. No one can predict the weather, but at least now you can control it. They said our blue-sky research wasn't practical, but with this CloudBuster app you can dissolve any clouds you wish and clear the way for a better day. Out of respect to farmers and others who depend upon rainfall, please don't perform cloud busting in drought-prone areas.
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"There are more stories than could be read in a single lifetime. And even if you, dear reader, began reading, by the time you read even a fraction of them, the meanings of the previous stories would have changed. . . . Now all we need to create is more time, more memory, and a few more infinite readers like you."
"Everyone carries a TRAIN about inside of him. Sitting across the table from someone, when all is quiet, sometimes you can hear the whistle blow."
"We were SNAKES. Around us the jungle sighed. A woman offered us fruit. We ate and knew that we were not naked, nor human. She and her companion left. We remained."
"If you were walking across a barren plain and had an honest intention of walking on, then it would be a desperate matter, but you are flying, gliding and diving, SOARING and swooping, high above the plain, which, seen from above, is a tiny blot on a vast and various landscape."
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Page 137 of 169
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Original Content Copyright © 2025 by Craig Conley. All rights reserved.
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